I guess you could call Sheila Raines a trooper. Or a fool.

 

Raines belongs to Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated. That San Bernardino County, California club recently made headlines when its president, Diane Fedele, decided to go for some yuks by circulating a newsletter with a racist illustration.

 

The illustration featured a picture of a fake $10 bill with Barack Obama’s head atop a donkey’s body -- with the words “United States Food Stamps” inscribed on it. That image is surrounded by a pitcher of Kool-Aid, a bucket of fried chicken, ribs and a slice of watermelon.

 

All that was missing was the collard greens and chitlins.

 

But Fedele’s sense of humor didn’t go over well with Raines, who is black. She told the San Bernardino Sun that she demanded Fedele make a public apology.

 

Fedele refused.

 

So Raines, who said she cried over the newsletter, decided that it was time to go public with her angst.

 

“[Fedele] apologized to me, but what I could not get her to see was that this was offensive to everyone -- or should have been,” Raines told the Sun. “I wanted them to be enlightened.”


 
Like I said, Raines is a trooper.


 
She’s a trooper for remaining in a club like that in the belief that she can educate its members about black people, or at least embarrass them into not acting on their racism.

 

But if it turns out that Raines cannot do that and she sticks around anyway, well then, she’ll go from being a trooper to being a fool.

 

And right now, it looks as if Raines has her work cut out for her.

 

Fedele continues to insist that she meant no harm by distributing the offensive illustration, which was, ironically, developed on a liberal website as satire intended to poke fun at racists terrified of an Obama presidency.

 

But it’s one thing for a satirist to use that kind of illustration to make a point about racists who hate Obama; it’s another when those who indeed dislike Obama, like Fedele, use it to perpetuate the stereotypes that the illustration is using to embarrass people into not being racist.

 

Then there’s Fedele.


 
The woman keeps insisting that she meant no harm; that to her, the ribs, the chicken, the watermelon and Kool-Aid were nothing more than food. What’s worse is that many of the other women in that club say the same thing.

 

If Fedele and her friends truly believe that a picture of a black man surrounded by stereotypical foods like that isn't offensive, then Raines has an even bigger problem on her hands.

 

And it’s a problem that underscores why so few black people belong to the Republican party: When blacks try to give the GOP a chance, they are quickly reduced to invisibility.

 

Raines, as well as Acquanetta Warren, a black woman who also belongs to the club, are examples of this. The fact that Fedele distributed a racially-offensive newsletter without asking either one of them about it says a lot.

 

It says that she didn’t care what they thought about it; that their presence in the club never inspired her to take the time to learn about or understand black people.

 

Or it says Fedele thought that Raines and Warren were so proud to be a part of the GOP women’s club that they no longer had any pride in being black.

 

But Raines and Warren aren’t the first blacks to get the Republican invisibility treatment.


The same thing happened to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose warnings about the long-term risks of invading Iraq were ignored because Vice President and chicken hawk Dick Cheney thought otherwise.


 
I wish .....

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